Lucan
Lucan (Marcus Annaeus Lucanus) (AD 39–65),was born at Corduba (mod. C-rdoba), 3 November AD 39. His father, Marcus Annaeus Mela, was a Roman knight and brother of the younger Seneca. Mela came to Rome when his son was about eight months old. There Lucan received the typical élite education, ending with the school of rhetoric, where he was a great success (see education, Roman); he probably also studied Stoic philosophy under Lucius Annaeus Cornutus, a connection of Seneca. He continued his studies at Athens, but was recalled by Nero, who admitted him to his inner circle and honoured him with the offices of quaestor and augur. In AD 60, at the first celebration of the games called Neronia, he won a prize for a poem in praise of Nero. In AD 62 or 63 he published three books of his epic on the Civil War. Growing hostility between him and Nero, for which various reasons are...
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